This invention relates to waste food disposers intended primarily for use in the home and adapted for use beneath the kitchen sink. Disposers of this type are provided with a open-top housing defining a comminuting chamber. Means are provided to support the housing beneath the sink with the open top thereof aligned with the sink drain opening. In such arrangement, food waste may be placed in the sink and gradually fed into the disposer along with water.
In some types of food disposers of the aforesaid general nature, an electric motor drives an upright shaft having radially disposed cutting blades which are centered within the comminuting chamber to act upon the waste material. In order to produce effective communication, the waste material must be struck many times by the blades. This is achieved by virtue of a turbulent flow pattern within the chamber which re-circulates material to the blades. However, in many disposer designs, the centrifugal effect of the blades forms a streamlined vortex-type flow pattern which is not conducive to re-circulation. In such designs, the blades are relatively inefficient in their comminuting action.
Because of the high centrifugal force of the blades, any imbalance such as may be caused by the striking of heavy objects, will cause appreciable vibration and noise. The vibrational effects further produce excessive wear with consequent shortened life expectancy of the disposer. As a further consequence of the high centrifugal force of the blades, material is sometimes thrown upwardly out of the housing with considerable velocity.
lt is accordingly a primary object of the present invention to provide a waste disposer having improved comminuting efficiency.
It is another object of this invention to provide an improved waste disposer as in the foregoing object which produces less vibration and noise during normal operation.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved waste disposer of the aforesaid nature having reduced tendency to throw material upwardly out of the disposer.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide an improved waste disposer of the aforesaid nature which automatically injects water into the comminuting chamber during operation.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an improved waste disposer of the aforesaid nature having a closure lid which is automatically deployed upon activation of the waste disposer.
These objects and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description.